A new contract has been awarded on the ‘most environmentally-friendly shuttle tankers’ newbuilding project underway at the Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) shipyard in South Korea.

Norway’s Tamrotor Marine Compressors (TMC) won a contract from SHI for an undisclosed amount to provide marine compressed air systems on the four LNG-fuelled shuttle tankers the shipbuilder is constructing for Teekay Offshore.

TMC’s Compressors of the Seas range of compressed air systems will be installed on each of the four shuttle tankers being built by Samsung, including compressors for service and control air as well as adsorption air dryers.

The product range includes screw compressors, dryers and filters made for marine and offshore use and designed for use in 55°C ambient temperature and tested in extreme conditions. The TMC compressor range used on the Teekay ships is also capable of filtering oil from air.

TMC will make its first delivery in the project in Q3 2018.

Teekay signed an initial agreement with SHI for two Suzemax-sized, DP2 shuttle tankers in July 2017 and announced in December 2017 it would option a further two identical vessels.

The first of the 154,000 dwt vessels is due for delivery in 2019, with the remaining three vessels scheduled to arrive in 2020.

The shuttle tankers are destined for service in the North Sea under Teekay’s existing agreement with Statoil ASA.

The so-called Shuttle Spirit design for the ships incorporates fuel efficiency and emissions reductions measures that include using LNG as fuel.